The Second Battle of Etoufette
The Second Battle of Etoufette was a siege conducted by The Dupont Armada, pride of the ports of Southpoint, upon the pirates of Hartford's Hazards, of Fort Etoufette in Elusia. Background The Battle was the result of more than a year of skirmishes between the Hazards and Dupont ships, mostly cargo and escort vessels. Shortly after the armada invaded the Elusian Isles, the defensive line at Shipwreck Shoals was broken, and the fleet could push southward to a series of key Pirate strongholds. One such foothold was Etoufette, a historic location to Mainlander colonists. At the time of the battle, the castle was home to Hartford Reeves, Scourge of Elusia and Baron of the Eastern Isles. Reeves had been leading a campaign to rid the Isles of Dupont presence for months, and had outlived his usefulness as a belligerent against other powers in the region. By order of Henri Dupont himself, the castle was to be rased, with the help of key intelligence from a double-crossing Baron of the North, Hieronymous Ridley. Ridley informed the Duponts that Etoufette was capable of launching ships through a secret cave network beneath the cliffs, known as The Grotto. Though the shores to the south and north of the castle were well defended by The Hazards, a direct incursion into the belly of the castle was ill prepared-for. With such an incursion, covered by mortar fire against the castle walls, a Dupont victory was all but a forgone conclusion. The Battle Circumstances were grim for The Hazards from the outset. They had returned from a series of major raids, meaning their men were exhausted, their equipment was in need of repair and The Grotto was choked with boxes of cargo, making a coordinated defensive line inconvenient. As Dupont marines poured in through the mouth of the cave, mortars peppered the upper walls of the castle, drowning out much of the shouting of orders between frazzled and surprised lieutenants of the Hazards. Hartford Reeves himself was taken completely by surprise, and had spent much of the day entertaining his mistress, Antonia Desantis of Kalu. By the time he had ensured her escape from the battle, much of the castle was falling apart and the Duponts had breached the lower reaches of the keep itself. Soon after, the crew's sawbones was killed by a wayward shot, leaving the many wounded without hope of seeking care. Less than an hour after the shelling began, it became clear to Reeves' inner circle that there was no fighting off the Duponts. With his own lover dead at the hands of falling masonry, Man of War Grenouille Etoufette lost all intention of making it out alive. Commanding his compatriots to flee by carriage train away from the fort, he activated a series of "doomsday" countermeasures: caches of highly flammable stinkfruit trees, creating a wave of explosions that brought the walls of the castle crumbling outward to capsize the besieging Dupont ships. As what remained of The Hazards fleed into the cliffs and crags of Shattershore, the home they had fought to secure and prosper in tumbled off the edge of the land, never to be seen again. Result Dupont victory, all Hazards either killed, captured or retreated. Heavy Hazard and moderate Dupont casualties, colateral damage extreme.